India Today published the Best Cities Survey results and rankings to highlight the livability of various cities in India. This is said to set the gold standard for measuring the performance of city and state governments and hope to spur healthy competition between cities as each tries to climb the ladder to the top of the table. Ultimately, any improvements that take place will benefit the 370 million people of India who live in 8,000 cities and small towns.A great deal of country’s creativity, enterprise and talent resides in cities.If these are to continue to flourish, they need a congenial environment to work and to play. The future of India,, in many ways, depends on the prosperity of its cities and they definitely deserve better.

In this survey, India Today chose 50 cities and assessed each under nine categories, viz

Housing and transport

Entertainment

Education

Environment

Crime and Safety

Public Services

Healthcare

Economy

Investment

Where Thiruvananthapuram stand in this survey and ratings?

Well, in the “Housing and Transport” category Thiruvananthapuram emerged as the Best City and Rajkot as the Emerging City. The report says, “2% of Thiruvananthapuram’s total population lives in slums, the lowest among the 50 cities in India; 44% of the city’s residents use public transport and 49% residents take less than five minutes to cover 5km in their neighbourhood, only 13% can do the same in Mumbai.“

Also, in the overall category, Thiruvananthapuram placed at 15th, whereas Chennai placed at first position.